{"id":10090,"date":"2015-01-07T06:12:38","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T14:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=10090"},"modified":"2015-01-05T14:15:17","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T22:15:17","slug":"as-i-was-saying-cougar-just-another-sexist-term-for-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2015\/01\/07\/as-i-was-saying-cougar-just-another-sexist-term-for-women\/","title":{"rendered":"As I Was Saying<\/em>: Cougar just another sexist term for women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t call me a cougar. We don\u2019t need another word to shame women.<\/p>\n

According to sex columnist Valerie Gibson, the term \u201ccougar\u201d originated in Vancouver, BC to describe older woman who go to bars looking for younger men.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a woman in my thirties, and I\u2019m frequently mistaken for being younger; young people often approach me because I look the same age as them.<\/p>\n

The fact is I have dated younger people and I have been called a \u201ccougar.\u201d I\u2019m not a cougar; I\u2019m a woman. I don\u2019t date younger people because it\u2019s my thing; it\u2019s because I\u2019m attracted to the person, and the age difference is just a coincidence.<\/p>\n

\"As<\/a>
As I Was Saying<\/em> is the Camosun College Women\u2019s Centre column (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Being called a cougar is offensive, ageist, and sexist. Using the term \u201ccougar\u201d to describe women who date someone younger also suggests that this act warrants a label.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an old argument, but still valid; a woman is shamed if she\u2019s in a relationship with someone younger, but if a man does this it\u2019s impressive. It\u2019s a sexist double standard, since there\u2019s not a similar word to describe a man who dates younger people.<\/p>\n

The label is also obnoxious because it portrays an animalistic image of an older woman who preys on a younger person for sex or a relationship. Being attracted to a person is not about age; age is literally a number.<\/p>\n

Of course, with age we gain experiences, maturity, and sense of self. However, we don\u2019t choose whom we fall in love with, or whom we develop an attraction for; real love is about a connection or chemistry.<\/p>\n

Falling in love is an extraordinary human experience, and women should not be embarrassed if they fall in love with someone who\u2019s younger; the love should be celebrated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t call me a cougar. We don\u2019t need another word to shame women. According to sex columnist Valerie Gibson, the term \u201ccougar\u201d originated in Vancouver, BC to describe older woman who go to bars looking for younger men. I\u2019m a woman in my thirties, and I\u2019m frequently mistaken for being younger; young people often approach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-january-7-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10092,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10090\/revisions\/10092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}